How House Republicans have put themselves in new a complicated impeachment 'bind'

25 December 2023

Although House Republicans have vowed to formalize an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, they have yet to vote on any actual articles of impeachment. If Biden is impeached, the charges would go to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

In a report published on December 24, Politico's Jordain Carney stresses that House Republicans have put themselves in a complicated situation.

"Now that House Republicans have formalized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden," Carney explains, "anything less than voting to remove him could look like failure. Right now, though, they don't have the votes to do that — putting them in a bind of their own making."

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The reporters lays out some reasons why "a vote to recommend booting the president from office would be highly risky" for House Republicans.

"Much of the House GOP has tried to keep the question of a full-scale removal vote at arm's length, despite the course they've charted toward formal articles of impeachment," Carney observes. "It's not hard to see why: They'll start the election year with only a three-vote majority, which could shrink even further, and 17 incumbents who represent districts Biden won. Plus, Democrats are almost guaranteed to unanimously oppose impeachment."

Some of the House Republicans interviewed by Politico voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry but expressed doubts about voting "yes" on any possible impeachment articles.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota), for example, told Politico that presently, "there's not enough evidence to impeach." And Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) told Politico, "We're a long way from impeachment.

"Republicans are barreling toward an impeachment vote, still short of a majority," Carney observes. "But if they skip one altogether, it might look like failure to the base."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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